Fire and Sleet and Candlelight

Fire and Sleet and Candlelight

 by Elinor Wylie

For this you’ve striven

    Daring, to fail:

Your sky is riven

    Like a tearing veil.

 

For this, you’ve wasted

    Wings of your youth;

Divined, and tasted

    Bitter springs of truth.

 

From sand unslakèd

    Twisted strong cords,

And wandered naked

    Among trysted swords.

 

There’s a word unspoken,

    A knot untied.

Whatever is broken

    The earth may hide.

 

The road was jagged

    Over sharp stones:

Your body’s too ragged

    To cover your bones.

 

The wind scatters

    Tears upon dust;

Your soul’s in tatters

    Where the spears thrust.

 

Your race is ended—

    See, it is run:

Nothing is mended

    Under the sun.

 

Straight as an arrow

    You fall to a sleep

Not too narrow

    And not too deep.